First, I went to the clinic on campus to find out what was wrong. The nurse poked and prodded and bent my foot, then sent me to the doctor who did the same. The doctor diagnosed me with tendonitis of my "left great toe," meaning the big toe of my left foot, and possible turf toe. She filled out a piece of paperwork, wrote "dance major" across it, and sent me to the Sports Medicine Department in our athletics facility/gym. I walked over there and set up an appointment for a couple days later.
I sat out of my ballet class that day, much to my teacher's chagrin. In fact, she looked at my doctor's note, which said that I shouldn't be dancing for 10 days, and scoffed.
When my appointment came, I went in and met with the man who runs the department. He did the same thing as the nurse and doctor, lots of "Does this hurt? How about this?" He confirmed the tendonitis and gave me tips on how to help it. He told me to ice it immediately after activity and use heating pads otherwise, unless my toe makes a creaking sound, then stop heat. I took some anti-inflammatories and he showed me how to tape my foot to keep my toe from bending back and aggravating the tendon.
More later!
